Mini Series The Acolyte 1.04 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Those puppets don't last long. They'd have to start from scratch.

 

Yes, from the way it was shot my take was also that she didn't see it coming.
Though, "kill without a weapon" is a set-up that most likely won't be left there without payoff. There are valid arguments for both interpretations.

 

Grogu is a puppet/cgi mix (right? There is also some cgi even if slight or I am
Mistaken?)
Therefore Yoda should be a puppet/cgi mix!
I have spoken

 

Well Lelsey Headland was said she got a no no for using Master Yoda. And there is a reason why not been using Yoda mutch in The High Republic. You could try doing the Grogu route with both puppet and CGI, but wont look as good.

 

I would not define that “useless acrobatics” but more of training your kata with the bokken/bokutō like in kendo/kenjutsu?
These are series of defined movements you train obsessively and progressively faster and faster in order to master your stance and your openings perfectly and instinctively while using a non deadly weapon. He says in the end he wants to see two students openings I think?
In real life you do that before starting to handle a real katana, if your opening is not completely organic and refined you risk cutting your hand off even before starting combat with your opponent when you “open”.
So I would say it makes completely sense to train the youngling with the bokutō until they master the base forms so that when they handle the lightsabers they don’t chop themselves to pieces in the first lesson!
I actually appreciated that because I always found nonsense that you would show younglings always training directly with lightsabers…you maybe strong in the force but there is a limit on what you can master and achieve instinctively in combat with such a deadly weapon…( yeah looking at you Rey…)
Kanan also trained Sabine with a bokutō before using the dark saber…

 

One new lore thing i loved about this new episode is, Jedi middle management Council, with Vernestra leading as middle manager.

 

Assistant Regional Jedi Manager.
....Assistant to the Regional Jedi Manager.

 

If somebody pulls back Osha's bangs to reveal the branding that Mae received I'm going to be very confused, but what else is new?

EDIT: Oh also there were number of scenes in this episode that screamed, "this was filmed on a set!"

EDIT: Oh also, Osha and Mae's mantra rhyme is again making me think this could be some sort of Fight Club situation. "You are with me. I am with you. Always one but born as two. As above sits the stars and below lies the sea, I give you you and you give me me."

 

It’s not Plo Koon.

 

A film or studio set pretty much always looks like a set... I actually like the fact they were using sets as opposed to the 'volume'.

 

Do they? It's not like using puppet Yoda pre-TPM creates a continuity error. We're just meant to see the character of Yoda on-screen, not overthink the potential implications of him transforming from an emotive digital creation into a physical being of green foam and fiberglass after a few years spent in the Dagobah air. Puppet Yaddle and CGI Yoda share scenes in TPM, after all.

 

But there's a way to do it that makes it feel real and there are number times on this show where it feels like they're in a small room that's been dressed up to look like a town square or a forest, etc...

 

And puppet Yaddle looked terrible. TLJ puppet even didnt look like ESB puppet Yoda. And Grogu as puppet could only do so mutch. Could we see Yoda as puppet emote like in prequels? Like say if a director wanted to do Yoda in action scenes.

 

Imagine that, Star Wars intended for young adults. That would have never happened in 1977!

 

Its the whole thing of OT tradition people like to hold by. Like the showrunner for example loves the OT, So her instinct may be to do it the way it looked best and she will likely see it as the puppet that is most yoda then the CGI.

Obviously we have seen them change things back and forth many times. Like how the hutts were CGI in TBOF rather how they did it in ROTJ. But there is probably good reason for that. Budget likely.

 

This week on "The Street".

 

That particular conversation between Qimir and Mae is pretty interesting. On the surface it might seem sort of throw-away filler, I think it may more more significance than that. First, it strongly reminded me in a lot of the way Palpatine would emotionally manipulate Anakin, actually. That whole technique of pretending it's a casual comment thrown out there without intent, but in reality it's crafted to manipulate a specific reaction from the other person. In this case, Qimir tries to take advantage of Mae's attachment to Osha. I think he was purposefully needling her in saying that Osha was particularly fond of Sol, with the intent of fueling the fire of Mae's resentment of the Jedi taking her sister away from her. Whether or not Qimir turns out to be Sith (master or apprentice or acolyte), the parallel to Palpatine's version of the Sith playbook stood out to me.

Second, Mae's emotional reactions during that conversation definitely run the gamut, based on her facial expressions. Personally, I think this is where we see Mae seriously considering and shifting her position on following the Master and fulfilling his directive. It may not have been spelled out in words, but I think we see her emotional shifts here. And frankly, her change makes total sense to me. We saw in the flashback that her primary motivation is her attachment to Osha, even more than to the coven. She flips out at the idea of Osha being separated from her, despite the fact that Mae would have stayed with the coven. So it makes sense that even more than the loss of the coven, it was the specific loss of Osha that drove her desire for revenge against the Jedi. Now suddenly she learns Osha is alive. If she believes that she has to make a choice between the Master and his directive/lesson vs getting Osha back... it's entirely consistent with her character to chose Osha. Honestly, in earlier scenes I never had the impression that she was a strict adherent to the Sith philosophy for the sake of it. In that earlier scene with Qimir when they touched on the "peace is a lie" tenant, she seemed kinda like "yeah, I know, whatever". I this it's more that she goes with it because it's part and parcel with something else she wants. And when she sees that path change, she doesn't have an anchor to keep her with the Master other than fear.

 

I'm starting to get the impression that different people are interpreting the "kill a Jedi without a weapon" directive in distinctly different ways. Some people seem to be thinking it means the Jedi has to be without a weapon (ie kill an unarmed Jedi), while others seem to think it means Mae has to kill a Jedi in such a way that she is not using a weapon to do so. Based on the conversations between Mae and Qimir, I really think it's the latter - that Mae must kill the Jedi without her using a weapon. Admittedly there line "attacking a defenseless person goes against everything the Jedi stands for" muddies the waters on this. But I think all the other lines support that Mae has to be the one weaponless.

 

I agree with your interpretation.

The way that I understood this line is that Mae is supposed to make the Jedi look bad, by having the Jedi hold a weapon and attack her while she is without one. This seems to be the ultimate goal for Mae, which now can only be realized against Sol I suppose.

 

I'm just watching the episode again. Does anyone know if the ship we see land near the beginning belongs to either Qimir or Mae? Because it gives me Scimitar (Maul's ship) vibes, albeit a 'ye olden times' version.

 

Isn't she just saying she will never be able to goad the Jedi into attacking her without being armed herself? And once she is armed and the Jedi is as well, she won't be able to take them down.

Now, I don't know why she isn't considering trying to take the Jedi by surprise instead of challenging them head-on. She clearly doesn't know of Force Choke, lol. Even if she did, I'm quite sure she's not powerful enough yet to overpower a master with the Force.